Still building on your binge-watching list during the quarantine period? FDCP's Binging During Quarantine series can help you by highlighting Filipino films available in online streaming platforms. Our first two featured films are official entries of the Philippines to the Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards: "Birdshot" (2016) by Mikhail Red and "Signal Rock" (2018) by Chito S. Roño. For our third installment, we have a classic this time: Gawad Urian Best Picture "Bayaning Third World" (1999) by Mike de Leon.

This week, we chose Chito Roño’s Signal Rock, a film that premiered in 2018’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino where it won various awards on its way to being selected as the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Signal Rock is currently available for streaming on iWant and iTunes. 

Perhaps the most helpful thing most people can do right now under the pandemic situation is to stay at home, follow the community quarantine, and flatten the covid curve. For many folks, this gives plenty of free time to binge-watch new shows and movies online (imagine that! Binging is already a form of helping out your community!). Here at FDCP, as lovers and promoters of Philippine cinema, we’ve decided to start our series: Binging on Quarantine, to revisit and explore the many great films of Philippine cinema that we can include in our quarantine watch-list. We hope that this series brings forward a further appreciation of Philippine movies and allow us to see all its excellence and diversity.

Launched last October, the Film Philippines Incentive Scheme seeks to encourage international production companies to shoot in the Philippines by providing financial incentives for projects that co-produce with or hire local production companies. The new initiative takes effect in January 2020 and comprises of the Film Location Incentive Program (FLIP) and the International Co-Production Fund (ICOF).

VENICE, ITALY: In my five years as Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) Chairperson, it was only my first time to attend the Venice International Film Festival, the oldest and one of the most prestigious festivals of its kind. Despite the pandemic, I was fortunate to attend it this year, in support of "On the Job: The Missing 8," the only Filipino (and Asian film) in the main competition. I was also there to promote the FilmPhilippines incentives to possible international partners and collaborators.

We're only just two weeks into September as the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) headed the celebration of the first-ever Philippine Film Industry Month, and I can say that we are off to a great start.

The first-ever Philippine Film Industry Month has just kicked off, and it is overwhelming to have already received much support in our first week. We have more events and programs throughout the month, and I am excited to share with you what the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) has lined up for the rest of Philippine Film Industry Month.

In just a few days, the Philippines will officially celebrate and commemorate the heritage, significance, and legacy of Philippine Cinema through the 1st Philippine Film Industry Month in September, an annual month-long observation mandated by President Rodrigo Duterte through Presidential Proclamation No. 1085 signed on February 3, 2021.

My dear Philippine Cinema, it has been five years since I took that oath to be of service to this country through championing our cinema. And what a journey it has been so far.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 — Following the Inter-Agency Task Force’s (IATF) COVID-19 Alert Levels System, Metro Manila is currently placed under Alert Level 4 from September 16 until 30. The new quarantine scheme of granular lockdown aims to curb the COVID-19 cases while allowing economic activities.